Lehigh County District Attorney’s office announced Sept. 13 Msgr. John Stephen Mraz, 66, now residing at Holy Family Villa for Priests, Bethlehem, has been charged with sexual abuse of children and criminal use of communication facility - both felonies of the third degree - and obscene and other sexual materials and performances - a misdemeanor of the first degree.

Mraz at one time served at Assumption BVM, Northampton.

According to a press release from the district’s attorney’s office, during the week of July 25, 2016, Mraz allegedly requested a parishioner to perform maintenance updates and to upgrade his HP laptop. In doing so, the parishioner discovered files in the computer’s recycle bin depicting images of nude males.

Mraz allegedly then asked him to update another laptop. In the process of upgrading the second laptop, the parishioner discovered a file with a name suggesting it contained obscene images of underage males. The parishioner informed the Diocese of Allentown about what he had found.

The Diocese promptly relayed the information to Lehigh County District Attorney James B. Martin, who began an investigation.

The district attorney’s office said as part of that investigation, a search warrant was executed at Mraz’s residence in Emmaus. Digital devices were seized and submitted for digital forensic analysis.

According to the district attorney’s office, as a result of the analysis, it is alleged that the user of the devices actively searched the Internet looking for images and videos of underage males engaged in sex acts. It is alleged that numerous image files of child pornography were on the devices as well.

According to the Diocese of Allentown, “Monsignor Mraz was ordained in 1975. He was a professor at the former Reading Central Catholic High School, Allentown Central Catholic High School and vice principal and director of spiritual activities at Marian High School in Tamaqua. He was chaplain at the Newman Center at Lehigh University and assistant superintendent in the Diocesan Office of Education. He was pastor of the former St. Bertha Parish in Tuscarora, at Assumption BVM, Northampton, and since 2008 at St. Ann Parish in Emmaus.

“Monsignor Mraz has been removed from public ministry and cannot present himself as a priest.”